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I know it pains you to think of things in non-partisan terms, but there are several whole industries based in the Gulf of Mexico and its surrounding waterways for whom this is not merely a political talking point.
Quite frankly, I could say the exact same thing about anything you claim on climate change.
My instinct is that anything you post is more hype. I could be wrong, but I don't care to look for solid facts on the things you post.
To many times in my life I have seen articles written by sophists who claim to be "honest skeptics".
Claims stand or fall on their own. Blanket dismissals are a ty way to form opinions.
I know it pains you to think of things in non-partisan terms, but there are several whole industries based in the Gulf of Mexico and its surrounding waterways for whom this is not merely a political talking point.
Money isn't partisan.
Follow who looking for a payoff.
My state is actually going forward with a lawsuit against BP, because some of the retirement funds are in their stocks. I don't know how they plan to win. The 5 year trend isn't that much different that other oil giants.
My point is that you'd have to be a full on re to think that no one was monitoring the health and safety of fish and wildlife populations in an area that supports sizable commercial fishing industries and supplies seafood to a big part of the country without a political hot button issue or potential law suit dollars as a motivation.
Yes. Analogous.
Study reveals link between oil spill exposure and hematologic and hepatic toxicity
A new study reports that workers exposed to crude oil and dispersants used during the Gulf oil spill cleanup display significantly altered blood profiles, liver enzymes, and somatic symptoms compared to an unexposed control group. Investigators found that platelet counts were significantly decreased in the exposed group, while both hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were notably increased. Their findings, reported in The American Journal of Medicine, suggest that oil spill cleanup workers are at risk for developing hepatic or blood-related disorders.
In April 2010, Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling rig owned by British Petroleum (BP) exploded, spewing over 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In order to break down the oil slick, BP used nearly 2 million gallons of dispersants like COREXIT, and an estimated 170,000 workers participated in the cleanup effort. Currently, COREXIT is banned in the United Kingdom because of its potential risk to cleanup workers.
While other studies have identified a relationship between oil spills, dispersants, and human health, this new research from the University Cancer and Diagnostic Centers, Houston, TX, led by G. Kesava Reddy, PhD, MHA, and Mark A. D'Andrea, MD, FACRO, focuses primarily on the link between oil spill exposure and hematologic and hepatic functions in subjects who had participated in the oil spill cleanup operation. The investigators looked at a total of 247 subjects between January 2010 and November 2012, with 117 subjects identified as exposed to the oil spill and dispersants by participating in the cleanup over the duration of three months. The unexposed control group of 130 subjects was comprised of people living at least 100 miles away from the Gulf coast of Louisiana.
Using medical charts, demographic and clinical records, the team reviewed specific data points such as white blood cell (WBC) counts, platelet counts, hemoglobin, hematocrit, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, serum beta-2 microglobulin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate amino transferase (AST), and alanine amino transferase (ALT) for both groups.
While no significant differences were noted in the WBC counts of the two groups, the study did find that platelet counts were notably decreased in the oil spill exposed group. Also, BUN and creatinine levels were substantially lower in the exposed group, while hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were increased compared to the unexposed subjects. Furthermore, considered indicators of hepatic damage, the serum ALP, AST, and ALT levels in the exposed subjects were also elevated, suggesting that the exposed group may be at a higher risk for developing blood-related disorders.
"Phosphatases, amino transferases, and dehydrogenases play critical roles in biological processes. These enzymes are involved in detoxification, metabolism, and biosynthesis of energetic macromolecules that are important for different essential functions," says lead investigator G. Kesava Reddy. "Alterations in the levels of these enzymes result in biochemical impairment and lesions in the tissue and cellular function."
Participants also reported somatic symptoms, with headache reported most frequently, followed by shortness of breath, skin rash, cough, dizzy spells, fatigue, painful joints, night sweats, and chest pain. "The health complaints reported by those involved in oil cleanup operations are consistent with the previously reported studies on major oil spills. However, the prevalence of symptoms appears to be higher in the present study compared with the earlier findings of other investigators," added Dr. Reddy.
The investigators acknowledge that the lack of pre-disaster health data on the subjects involved in the study is the greatest limiting factor; however, the data collected have shown significant health effects on the cleanup workers.
"To our knowledge, no previous study has explored the effects of the oil spill specifically assessing the hematological and hepatic functions in oil spill cleanup workers," explains Dr. Reddy. "The results of this study indicate that oil spill exposure appears to play a role in the development of hematologic and hepatic toxicity. However, additional long-term follow-up studies are required to understand the clinical significance of the oil spill exposure."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-srl091213.php
Gulf Ecosystem in Crisis Three Years After BP Spill
New Orleans - Hundreds of kilograms of oily debris on beaches, declining seafood catches, and other troubling signs point towards an ecosystem in crisis in the wake of BP's 2010 oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
"It's disturbing what we're seeing," Louisiana Oyster Task Force member Brad Robin told Al Jazeera. "We don't have any more baby crabs, which is a bad sign. We're seeing things we've never seen before."
Robin, a commercial oyster fisherman who is also a member of the Louisiana Government Advisory Board, said that of the sea ground where he has harvested oysters in the past, only 30 percent of it is productive now.
"We're seeing crabs with holes in their s s, other seafood deformities. The state of Louisiana oyster season opened on October 15, and we can't find any production out there yet. There is no life out there."
According to Robin, entire sectors of the Louisiana oyster harvest areas are "dead or mostly dead". "I got 10 boats in my fleet and only two of them are operating, because I don't have the production to run the rest. We're nowhere near back to whole, and I can't tell you when or if it'll come back."
State of Louisiana statistics confirm that overall seafood catch numbers since the spill have declined.
Everything is down'
Robin is not the only member of the Gulf's seafood industry to report bleak news. Kathy Birren and her husband own Hernando Beach Seafood, a wholesale seafood business, in Florida.
"I've seen a lot of change since the spill," Birren told Al Jazeera. "Our stone crab harvest has dropped off and not come back; the numbers are way lower. Typically you'll see some good crabbing somewhere along the west coast of Florida, but this last year we've had problems everywhere."
Birren said the problems are not just with the crabs. "We've also had our grouper fishing down since the spill," she added. "We've seen fish with tar balls in their stomachs from as far down as the Florida Keys. We had a grouper with tar balls in its stomach last month. Overall, everything is down."
According to Birren, many fishermen in her area are giving up. "People are dropping out of the fishing business, and selling out cheap because they have to. I'm in west-central Florida, but fishermen all the way down to Key West are struggling to make it. I look at my son's future, as he's just getting into the business, and we're worried."
Dean Blanchard, owner of a seafood business in Grand Isle, Louisiana, is also deeply troubled by what he is seeing. "We have big tar mats coming up on Elmers Island, Fouchon, Grand Isle, and Grand Terre," Blanchard told Al Jazeera. "Every time we have bad weather we get fresh tar balls and mats."
Blanchard said his business generates only about 15 percent of what it did before the spill. "It looks like it's getting worse," he said. "I told my wife when she goes to the mall she can only spend 15 percent what she used to spend."
Blanchard has also seen shrimp brought in with deformities, and has taken photographs of shrimp with tumours (see above). Others lack eyes. He attributes the deformities to BP's use of toxic dispersants to sink the spilled oil.
"Everybody living down here watched them spray their dispersants day in and day out. They sprayed our bays and our beaches," he said. "We got a problem, because BP says they didn't spray down here, but we had a priest that even saw them spraying. So either we got a lying priest, or BP is lying."
BP and the Coast Guard have told the media they have never sprayed dispersants within 10 miles of the coast, and that dispersants have never been used in bays.
A decades-long recovery
On a more sombre note, Dr Ed Cake, a biological oceanographer and a marine biologist, believes it will likely take the Gulf decades to recover from the BP disaster.
"The impacts of the Ixtoc 1 blowout in the Bay of Campeche in 1979 are still being felt," said Cake, referring to a large oil spill near the Mexican coast, "and there are bays there where the oysters have still not returned. My prediction is we will be dealing with the impacts of this spill for several decades to come and it will outlive me."
According to Cake, blue crab and shrimp catches have fallen in Mississippi and Alabama since the spill, and he also expressed worries about ongoing dolphin die-offs. But his primary concern is the slow recovery of the region's oyster population.
"Mississippi recently opened their season, and their oyster fisherman are restricted to 12 sacks of oysters a day. But they can't even reach six," Cake said. "Thirty sacks would be a normal day for oysters - that was the previous limit - but that is restricted now because the stocks just aren't there."
Cake's conclusion is grim. "Here in the estuarine areas, where we have the oysters, I think it'll be a decade or two before we see any recovery."
BP previously provided Al Jazeera with a statement on this topic, a portion of which read: "Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is among the most tested in the world, and, according to the FDA and NOAA, it is as safe now as it was before the accident."
BP claims that fish lesions are naturally common, and that before the spill there was do ented evidence of lesions in the Gulf of Mexico caused by parasites and other agents.
More oil found
The second phase of the ongoing federal trial against BP investigates whether the company's actions to halt the flow of oil during the blowout were adequate, and aims to determine how much oil was released.
"BP is mounting an aggressive legal and public relations campaign to shield itself from liability and minimise the amount of oil spilled in the Gulf, as well as the ongoing impacts from the disaster," said Jonathan Henderson, an organiser for the Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental group.
Even Louisiana's Republican Governor Bobby Jindal agrees. Jindal recently said, "Three and a half years later, BP is spending more money - I want you to hear this - they are spending more money on television commercials than they have on actually restoring the natural resources they impacted."
As far away from the blowout site as Florida, researchers continue to find oil in both Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay.
In Louisiana, according to the LA Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), more than 200 miles of shoreline have "some degree of oiling", including 14 miles that are moderately or heavily oiled. From March through August of this year, over three million pounds of oiled material have been collected in Louisiana, more than double the amount over the same time period last year.
In addition, the CPRA reports that "investigations into the chemical composition of MC252 [BP's Macondo well] oil samples demonstrate that submerged oil is NOT substantially weathered or depleted of most PAH's [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons]," and "disputes…findings relied on by the USCG [US Coast Guard] that Deepwater Horizon oil is non-toxic".
The agency also expresses concerns that "submerged oil may continue to pose long term risk to nearshore ecosystems".
"New impacts to the Gulf's ecosystem and creatures also continue to emerge," Henderson told Al Jazeera. "This year alone, the National Marine Fisheries Service has recorded 212 dolphins and other marine mammal standings in the northern Gulf. A new scientific study conducted by NOAA, BP and university researchers also shows significant negative impacts on tiny organisms that live on the sea floor in a 57 square mile area around the Deepwater Horizon well site."
Numerous other impacts have been do ented since the disaster began, including genetic disruptions for Gulf killifish, harm to deepwater corals,, and the die-off of tiny foraminifera that are an important part of the Gulf's food chain.
Ongoing studies continue to reveal toxins from BP's spill in water, soil, and seafood samples.
Meanwhile, fishermen in BP's impact zone wonder if things will ever return to normal. "Our future is very, very dim, and there are no sponge crabs out there, which is the future," Robin concluded. "I've never seen this in my lifespan. I'm not seeing a future, because everything out there is dead."
http://truth-out.org/news/item/19526...after-bp-spill
BP is now refusing to pay up, saying they've paid enough.
Skypeople win, Na'vi lose
All the cable and broadcast news channels will clearly follow Al J's lead and run with this story.
BP's "Widespread Human Health Crisis"
Since the spill began in April 2010, Al Jazeera has interviewed hundreds of coastal residents, fishermen, and oil cleanup workers whose medical records, like Frizzell's, do ent toxic chemical exposure that they blame on BP's oil and the toxic chemical dispersants the oil giant used on the spill.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention lists the toxic components commonly found in chemicals in crude oil, and several of these chemicals have been found in the blood of people living in the impact zone of BP's disaster.
Several toxicologists agree, and now one accuses both BP and the US Environmental Protection Agency of knowingly placing people in harm's way since they both had prior knowledge of the harmful effects of the oil and dispersants.
"BP told the public that Corexit was 'as harmless as Dawn dishwashing liquid'," Dr Susan Shaw, of the State University of New York, told Al Jazeera. "But BP and the EPA clearly knew about the toxicity of the Corexit dispersants long before this spill."
Shaw, a toxicologist in the university's School of Public Health, has been studying the health effects of chemical exposure for 30 years. She is also the president and founder of the Marine Environmental Research Ins ute, and explained that BP's Material Safety Data Sheets for Corexit warned that the dispersant posed high and immediate human health hazards.
"Five of the Corexit ingredients are linked to cancer, 33 are associated with skin irritation from rashes to burns, 33 are linked to eye irritation, 11 are or are suspected of being potential respiratory toxins or irritants, and 10 are suspected kidney toxins," she added. "BP's own testing found that workers were exposed to a possible human carcinogen from the dispersant.
"We predicted with certainty the widespread human health crisis we are seeing in the Gulf today," Shaw said.
http://truth-out.org/news/item/19676...-health-crisis
Reminders of the BP Oil Spill Evident at Mardi Gras
Those who decided to enjoy the festivities along the Gulf of Mexico might be in for something they didn’t expect: oil tar mats.
On Thursday of last week, workers on Pensacola Beach, Florida spotted and brought to shore a 1,200 pound oil tar mat, which officials say accounted for about 90% of the total size of the mat.
While the bulk of the mat was a mixture of sand and other debris, scientists ran tests and were quickly able to determine that the oil in the mat was a perfect match for the oil released into the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster,
Gizmodo posted a list of some of the major deformities that were discovered during an Al Jazeera investigation, all of which are attributable to BP’s oil:
- Shrimp with tumors on their heads
- Shrimp with defects on their gills and "s s missing around their gills and head"
- Shrimp without eyes
- Shrimp with babies still attached to them
- Eyeless fish
- Fish without eye-sockets
- Fish without covers on their gills
- Fish with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills
- Crates of blue crabs, all of which were lacking at least one claw
- Crabs with holes in their s s
- Crabs with s s that have no es or claws or misshapen claws
- Crabs that are dying from within
http://www.alternet.org/environment/...ter965373&t=22
SkyPeople give gifts that keep on giving.
Has the ongoing destruction of wildlife and the Gulf from the BP spill pushed even BigOil-corrupted/captured Louisiana to seek relief from the SkyPeople destruction?
Nouvelle Orleans was victim of the canals, channels, and loss of the wetlands buffering.
3 Former Louisiana Governors Agree: Lawsuit Against 97 Oil And Gas Companies Should Proceed
Louisiana has given a lot to oil and gas companies, mostly in the form of natural resources. The generosity is not always reciprocated. While the industry brings economic gains and employment to the state, when it comes to environmental costs or socioeconomic strife the exchange is not so smooth. Last summer, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East took matters into their own hands by filing a lawsuit against 97 oil and gas companies claiming they have caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of coastal wetlands, which increases flood danger. The suit asks the companies to restore damaged wetlands or offer financial compensation for areas beyond repair, money that could be used for levee maintenance or construction.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was quick to brush off the legitimacy of the claims, demanding that the lawsuit be pulled and asserting that the board is improperly taking over the state’s role in coastal policy. The oil and gas companies — the perpetrators of all the digging and dredging of pipeline canals along the coast among other damaging activities — have sided with Jindal, who has already appointed three replacements to the board who see more eye-to-eye with him and share his opposition to the lawsuit after others terms ended.
On Wednesday, three former Louisiana governors took opposition to Jindal and the oil and gas industry. During a panel discussion at Loyola University, Buddy Roemer, Kathleen Blanco, and Edwin Edwards agreed that “no state officials — neither the legislature nor the current governor — should interfere with the local levee board’s lawsuit against oil companies,” according to UptownMessenger.com, a local New Orleans news source.
“This ought to be a for-profit state, but those who abuse the privilege and don’t pay for damaging the land and water and the air that we breathe ought to pay the cost of it,” said Roemer, a Republican who ran for president in 2012. Roemer also stated that the industry is simply trying to maximize their profits by shirking the responsibility of repairing the coastline.
Edwards and Blanco focused more on the lawsuit itself, with Edwards saying that at the very least it ought to be allowed to go to court to find out who is responsible and for what. Blanco agreed, citing the loss of land due to channel digging, and saying that she helped design the independent levee board to be free of politics. “I’m rather concerned that it is going to be re-politicized,” she added.
The editorial board of the New Orleans Times-Picayune calls the levee boards one of the most positive changes to the area after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “Residents demanded that the old crony-laden boards be consolidated and that board members have autonomy and the technical expertise to hold the Army Corps of Engineers accountable for its work,” wrote the board in February. “The new flood protection authorities are vastly better watchdogs than the old boards.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...s-restoration/
is oil, gas production, refining even amenable, available, at any price, to being non-destructive, non-polluting?
lol objective source there.
Is this one good enough?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...imals-science/
It's great, since it says much of that oil is consumed by critters and that doesn't happen with oil spills.
Good job, Darrin!
no link to corexit pollution sources?
It's great, since it says much of that oil is consumed by critters and that doesn't happen with oil spills.
Good job, Darrin!
I guess you missed the link "Read about how nature tackles oil spills".
For your convenience, I've posted it here --> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...anup-bacteria/
le: Nature Fighting Back Against Gulf Oil Spill
Sub le: For starters, crude is like butter for oil-munching bacteria.
Good job, Chump
And it stops working after awhile and is ed up by abuse of the environment.I guess you missed the link "Read about how nature tackles oil spills".
For your convenience, I've posted it here --> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...anup-bacteria/
le: Nature Fighting Back Against Gulf Oil Spill
Sub le: For starters, crude is like butter for oil-munching bacteria.
Good job, Chump
Good job, Darrin.
Seriously, you're trying to bring back the old Reagan chestnut of trees' being the largest source of pollution in the forests.
I never saw one bird smothered by oil from a seep when I lived in Santa Barbara.
nice bookends
And it stops working after awhile and is ed up by abuse of the environment.
Good job, Darrin.
Seriously, you're trying to bring back the old Reagan chestnut of trees' being the largest source of pollution in the forests.
I never saw one bird smothered by oil from a seep when I lived in Santa Barbara.
Lol, nice anectode. Case closed.
And it stops working after awhile and is ed up by abuse of the environment.
Good job, Darrin.
Seriously, you're trying to bring back the old Reagan chestnut of trees' being the largest source of pollution in the forests.
I never saw one bird smothered by oil from a seep when I lived in Santa Barbara.
Google is hard.
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar...birds-20120307
First sentence: Oil seeping from the ocean floor off Santa Barbara is taking a toll on seabirds that are turning up by the dozens along the Southern California coastline coated in crude oil and tar.
Shocking, the people with the most money to make from cherry picking data to say oil production pollution isn't a problem, say that oil production pollution isn't a problem.
What is the data on which they base their chart Darrin?
Anyone trying to honestly evaluate the topic should ask that basic question. I assume you care about what is true or not.
From the Nat Geo link I posted above:
"In fact, of the tens of millions of gallons of oil that enter North American oceans each year due to human activities, only 8 percent comes from tanker or oil pipeline spills, according to the 2003 book Oil in the Sea III by the U.S. National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, which is still considered the authority on oil-spill data."
Wait, so you don't like anecdotes now?
lol
Wow.
That's worse than BP and Valdez combined, right?
Are you going to Google those numbers?
Next: Fracking the Ocean.
lol I'm just trying to understand the point here.
Just because oil from seeps kill birds, massive tanker and rig spills are OK?
The real question here: is Darrin trolling, shilling or stupid?
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